Erdoğan’s former speechwriter: Call for Gülen’s return was tactical move


Date posted: August 26, 2016

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s former speechwriter and current Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputy Aydın Ünal wrote on Thursday that Erdoğan has never liked Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and that his call for Gülen to return to Turkey in 2012 was a political maneuver.

The admission came in Ünal’s Thursday column in pro-government daily Yeni Şafak in response to criticism that Erdoğan and his party had supported the grassroots social and educational movement inspired by the teachings of Turkish Islamic scholar Gülen.

“Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Necmettin Erbakan [former prime minister and leader of the political Islamist movement in Turkey] and the political movement that led to the AK Party’s birth have never liked Fethullah Gülen and never were in harmony with him,” Ünal wrote, a fact that is known to observers of religious movements in the country. Ünal, however, added that Erdoğan never trusted Gülen, either.

However, Erdoğan attended the 2012 Turkish Olympiads, the flagship event of the Gülen movement, and made a now infamous call to Gülen, who is in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. Erdoğan called for an “end to Gülen’s longing” and asked him to return to his home country.

According to Ünal, this was never a sincere invitation. Calling people who applauded Erdoğan’s request in a standing ovation “thousands of idiots,” Ünal said that unlike that crowd, the people who saw the beginning of the antagonism that emerged between Erdoğan and Gülen realized that the invitation “cornered” Gülen. Ünal termed Erdoğan’s insincere call “a maneuver of political genius” while admitting Erdoğan’s hypocrisy.

Following the massive corruption investigations of 2013 that implicated Erdoğan’s family, Turkey’s then prime minister accused Gülen of plotting a coup against his government. Hours after Turkey’s foiled coup in July, Erdoğan also declared Gülen the mastermind of the coup plot despite the lack of credible evidence.

An even more extensive witch-hunt against Gülen sympathizers has been ongoing since July 15.

Source: Turkish Minute , August 25, 2016

Tags: | | | |


Related News

Parallel state hunt makes McCarthyism look like child’s play

For the last year not a single day has passed without hearing these infamous words: parallel state. These were present in almost every speech made by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. They have been in the headlines everyday in every single newspaper close to the government.

Turkish prosecutor says Gülen movement founded by CIA!

A Turkish prosecutor in İzmir, investigating the financial links of the Gülen movement, which is inspired by the views of US-based Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, has claimed that the organizational structure of the group is the same as that of the Mormon Church and the Church of Scientology in the United States and that all three groups were founded by US intelligence agency the CIA.

Gülen condemns Paris shootings, says all forms of terror deplorable

Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen has strongly condemned an attack on a French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, and a series of shootings in Paris suburbs last week that left 17 dead, extending condolences to the families of the victims.

Speaking about Gülen, Chomsky: ‘Mandela declared as terrorist, too’

World-famous philosopher, philologist and historian Prof Dr. Noam Chomsky gave a speech about the claims of ‘terrorist’ against Fethullah Gülen in Boston. Chomsky reminded that legendary leader Nelson Mandela, who was awarded with Nobel Peace Prize for his struggle against racism and insistence on peaceful solution for racism, had been in ‘list of terrorists’.

Hizmet Symposium: Academics Foster Peacebuilding Advocacy

Hizmet, or service, is one of the largest social movements in the world. The Rumi Forum organized an international symposium called the “Hizmet Movement and Peacebuilding for Global Cases” at the National Press Club Ballroom in Washington D.C. Academics and scientists from more than 20 countries presented topics covering the impact of Hizmet Movement to […]

Bank Asya lawyers call upon B Group shareholders to join against seizure

Publicly traded Islamic bank Bank Asya’s owners have launched 100 cases against the seizure by regulators, with lawyer Süleyman Taşbaş emphasizing that lawsuits can also be filed on behalf of the 18,000 shareholders corresponding to the B Group shares.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Karınca Yuvası (Ant Nest) from Turkish designers to Bangladeshi orphans

The Alliance for Shared Values Statement on Ankara Attacks

A festival in Houston: Silk road festival

Turkish finance minister declines to comment on ‘color lists’

Doğan: Gülen stood against anti-cemevi campaigns

8-year-old cancer patient denied passport due to father’s alleged links to Turkey’s Gülen group

UN slams Thailand, Myanmar over deportation of Turk

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News